Advanced Warfare - Information

This page will contain confirmed information relating to Call of Duty Advanced Warfare (COD AW). More will be added as it is made available.

Summary

Here is a summary of what we know so far:

The game will be released on Tuesday, the 4th of November, 2014.

All DLC for the game will be released on the XBox One before it is released on other platforms. You can read more about that here.

This is Sledgehammer Game's first solo Call of Duty game. Previously, the studio assisted Infinity Ward with the development of MW3.

Advanced Warfare will be set in the year 2054.

You will be playing the role of a private PMC soldier by the name of Mitchell. Mitchell is employed by a Private Military Company called ATLAS, which is working to "restore a devastated world that is struggling to rebuild after a global attack on its military infrastructure." Throughout the reveal trailer, you can see multiple inclusions of the ATLAS logo. This company is often the first responder to catastrophic events, as it has immense funds and it has done such a good job in the past that it does not require congressional approval.

Mitchell will be voiced by actor Troy Baker. Baker recently voiced the character Joel in Last of Us.

You will play as Mitchell throughout the game. This is unlike many of the previous Call of Duty games, in which you took control of multiple characters.

Actor Kevin Spacey will be voicing Jonathan Irons, who is the CEO of ATLAS. Irons is the man who created the corporation and built it from the ground up. In fact, this PMC of his is so large that it was the first corporation to be given a seat on the United Nations Security Council.

At the start of the game, Mitchell is a United States Marine who is fighting alongside the son of Jonathan Irons. After they successfully repel an invasion that occurs on foreign soil, Irons approaches Mitchell and offers him the chance to work with ATLAS. Mitchell agrees and is given access to technology such as the EXO suit.

This exoskeleton suit can be upgraded throughout the game with points that the player earns during missions. It also partially-confirmed that this EXO suit will be available in the multiplayer. This suit will provide the player with the means to "boost jump."

The main enemy in the game is called the KVA, which is a well-funded international terrorist group.

New mechanics have been introduced into the game. i.e. You'll be able to do more than just mash your stick and knife somebody.

Unlike previous games, this title has undergone a three-year development cycle. Previously, Call of Duty games were developed within a two-year period, with Infinity Ward and Treyarch interchanging with one another.

Sledgehammer Games have stated that they are committed to COD eSports.

The trailer gave us a taste of what we should expect. We saw hover bikes, bionic suits, drones and mechanical gloves that allow you to scale walls. There was also a Predator-like cloaking device that allowed a soldier to blend in with his surroundings. You can read a more in-depth break down of the trailer here.

Most of the futuristic technology in the game is based on technology that is currently being researched.

Sledgehammer Games have confirmed that there will be a co-op mode.

The game will also be released on "current-gen" consoles (PS3 and the XBox 360). However, an entirely different studio will be creating it.

Chronological

July 2013: A Senior VFX Artist at Sledgehammer Games inadvertently publicises information about what the company is working on. In his LinkedIn bio, he states that he is working on the "next release in the Modern Warfare series." After the story garners some media attention, the profile is immediately stripped down and made private.

February 2014: Sledgehammer Games announce that they will be releasing their first solo Call of Duty title. Up until the announcement was made, most people assumed that it was Treyarch's "year" and that Black Ops 3 was on its way.

March 2014: Twitter user Lokiolr tweets that his boss is attending a Destination PlayStation event in Arizona. He tells his followers that the next Call of Duty game will be a continuation of the Modern Warfare series and that the Golden Gate Bridge will be featured. This later turns out to be true as the Advanced Warfare trailer shows several scenes where San Francisco's iconic Golden Gate Bridge is damaged after a high-speed chase with suspected KVA members.

March 2014: Youtube personality Drift0r receives leaked media files from an unknown source. One file contains a picture of a weapon with the name ATLAS engraved on it. Drift0r also tells his viewers that he could make out a triangular logo of some sort.

May 2014: The trailer for Call of Duty Advanced warfare is released. In it, we're shown several notable features, such as exoskeleton suits, hover bikes, heat-seeking vision, cloaking devices and drones. It also confirms Drift0r's leak as being legitimate, as we can see several occurrences of the name ATLAS, along with the triangular ATLAS logo that he spotted in the media files. Other things from the leak were also present, such as the wrist-watch PDA that he saw on a character model.

May 2014: Microsoft announce that downloadable content will be released on the XBox One before it is available to gamers on other platforms.

May 2014: Video game magazine GameInformer reveals further information about the game.

You play a character called Mitchell, who is a soldier in a Private Military Corporation called ATLAS. ATLAS is an organization that responds to various catastrophes and terrorist attacks around the globe.

Kevin Spacey is voicing the character Jonathan Irons, who is the CEO of ATLAS.

The "bad guy" in the game is a terrorist group called the KVA.

There will be missions that take place in Detroit and San Francisco.

The EXO suit is a major part of the plot and it will probably be included in the multiplayer.

The suit can be upgraded throughout the campaign.

One of your team mates will be called Gideon.

There is a refugee camp in Detroit. This camp was setup and is run by ATLAS.

There will be a function on the EXO suit that allows you to "speed it up." This effectively slows down time for the player (kind of like in Max Payne).

There will be a "mysterious group of good guys" in the game. These will befriend Mitchell. We're not told who they are or what their objective is.

"Variable grenades" can be thrown and then switched between concussion and "threat detection."